fm

11april2015

i was trying to figure out where to go after that bit of a glimpse. i could of easily continued on , but the need to sort of distance myself from that realm, became appropriate. i wanted to go lighter but not too light. i couldn't really figure out where to go without repeating , which will be a problem, for most things repeat. so if you wanna distance yourself, don't repeat. then i thought about doing another band or music thing. some light shit what i liked over the years. there's a ton of stories of such bands. bands you maybe like a few songs, maybe an album or two. i didn't feel right about writing on one band, that i may have listened to for a short period , then hardly ever. although not really that light i did think of the eagles. i liked a few, and then i didn't. you know there's heaps of stuff like that, and it would of become complicated . i wanted something that i could turn on and off , come and go real easy like. then i thought about that fm movie and/or album that was associated with that music in the 70s .

13april2015
fm or frequency modulation, was invented by a bloke called armstrong. in australian terms he would have been called a Larrikin , that being, sort of boyish thrill seeking, prankster type. i'm not too sure of the history here, i did see a doco on him years ago now. r.c.a. basically fucked him up. i have to do some research on him. at this point in time, that's about all i know. as for the fm movie/album, i've never really seen it. i think it was on telly one night , i started watching it, but thought it was passe'. i checked out the album on the wiki. much to my relief there is a eagles song there, life in the fast lane. thats off hotel california as i remember, i was well past them by that stage. i think the earliest thing there , that i was into years before, was steely dan. i had can't buy a thrill album, i think the song ,do it again ,still stands up today. it's as much disco as new order. maybe not. the rest of the album is typical of that era, although i did like the cover. now, i can't even remember the other songs on the album , reelin in the years, that's all i can remember.

15april2015
i  did the old google check about armstrong, it sort of sums up what i said, as for steely dan i forgot about the dirty work song. that pretty much sums up steely dan for me, i never really got into of their other stuff. a band thats not on the album but would sort of fit in , is america. the single, horse with no name, was a big hit on the pool room jukebox . i actually thought it earlier than late 1972, a lot of different types of music came out in 1972, when you think about it, that you couldn't keep up with it. thinking about the pool room jukebox, and the double a sided, judging by the plays, america - horse with no name/ sandman, the doors - riders on the storm/ the changling, the bee gees - run to me/ road to alaska, the surfaris - wipe out /surfer joe, i don't know how wipe out was still on the jukebox , but it was. other songs got played a lot , but the b side didn't get a look in, you know i'm talking 1972/3 here. as for fm radio , non existent at this time period.

17april2015
not really non existent, but most transistor radios pre 1975 were am and those with alternative waves were short wave. although tv volume was transmittered in fm. this guy had a radio and it had fm, as i remember. there was no stations transmitting, maybe a foreign language thing, i can't remember. going through the frequencies pretty much silence, except for buzzy noises and morse code  beeps, they reckoned it was ships. he said the only thing was a tv channel broadcast, i think we listened to gilligans island with amazement, that ran thin after a couple of days. thats about as good as fm got here then. another artist on the album was bob seger, who i heard a few years before the fm movie, not through countdown or radio. on wednesday nights there used to be pool comps up mt kembla pub. all the unanderra boys used to go on wednesday evenings, which i was part of at that time, when ever the night moves album came out. apparently the jukebox was on the blink up there. and the ant hill mob, thats the mt kembla boys brought some records to play . although there was hillbilly types up there, there was also well off, tuned in guys from school living up there. they played the night moves album, i thought the first song was ok. well the song came on ,the fire down below, i said who's that they said bob seger. i really liked that song then, i can't remember it at all now, haven't heard it for years, i did buy that album and flogged it to death. although he was popular here later on, i didn't go much on the later stuff. you know my names robert too.

18april2015
i forgot to mention steve miller band, he had a big hit with the joker, my sister had the single, as did the pinny jukebox. the album, fly like an eagle,  was a  hit, mainly through word of mouth. it was like radio here weren't playing the overseas stuff in favour of local product or some reason. maybe i was listening to the radio less , having a few records at the time. when i think about, i got an el cheap 3 in 1 record, tape and radio, it had fm and fm stereo, that probably would have been 1975. before that i had an old stereogram record player and radio, a big thing that was part of the old tv from the early 60s, but a separate unit. it never had  fm, but picked up sydney am quite well, probably had the same old stylus, i never bought one. at that time i only had a few lps any ways, it was mainly radio ,in my room. with the steve miller i bought the book of dreams lp, but by then my tastes were changing and i saw that as like pop rather than psyk, compared to pink floyd. again i never got into his 80s stuff, although he is quite a talented artist.

24april2015
you can't help it if you got fans for what ever reason, as for the fm radio , personally i never really got into it. what i mean by that is , i knew people who used to tape this and that, that's fair enough. i may have taped a few things here and there, mainly just to listen afterwards , then tape over it with something or rather. tapes weren't cheap either , not to tape some radio and just keep it, if you ain't gonna play it what's the use. sometimes i think about the things i could of recorded. you know it don't matter none, things sound different then and now and again. it's how you perceive it, and incorporate it , that's the spirit. things in a box or on a shelf never played are just that, things in a box. after time it becomes lots and lots of things in a box, then the format changes and it's even more things added on, then you just watch crap on telly.

5july2015
you know i could have finished the whole blog there, ending where it began. the whole purpose of the blog was to put up the john peel fm tapes, which i worked into a story. part of my story, like i said before, there's billions of stories on the net. i find mine interesting. the peel tapes would have been in a box, and going nowhere. now they're somewhere.

19july2015
ps.. did you like the way in which i could of ended it anyway. that's how it is beginning is middle is end, continuum. the beginning here was the eagles, i didn't know how to incorporate them in this. i still don't. they were part of the fm film though. everybody knows the eagles. i was watching some ogwt, whistle test, they were on it not once but twice.  

21july2015
moon day on a tuesday, you know one great step day.(get it, 21 july is tuesday) the eagles, landed with their greatest hits hype, although you could choose from 2 albums, their greatest hits or one of these nights. it was a bit like cat stevens albums of their time, tea for the tillerman and teaser and the firecat. i had teaser and the firecat, but that's another story. me being, of take the easy way, back then. besides it had, take it easy, on it as well as, one of these nights, choose one of these nights. to tell you the truth i felt ripped off. i thought they were shit country,, first listen. at that time i was further away from country as you could be.

22july2015
that last bit seems a bit confusing , i bought their greatest hits, probably confused to which one to buy. like i said, i felt ripped off. i felt that way about a few albums i bought over the years. that album sat in my small box of about 40 or so records for a few weeks before it got another listen. being bored with the other stuff i had . i gave it another listen, then just songs that i liked. one of these nights, then take it easy, then desperado, then i sort of liked a few, but still thought of it as country hippy shit, at that time i was far more into ian hunters first album, even that only had a few okay songs. but i had never heard of mott the hoople.

23july2015

 match book doesn't indicate fm though,
all rooms outside ?, probably outside view

25july2015

by the time hotel california came out, my life had changed somewhat from when i bought their greatest hits. i had gone from life on the dole, $aus72 a fortnight, although it was $31 a week first, actually it was $26 a week first. when i first applied in dec 74 it was $22.50, over time it did go up bit by bit, i had friends who were on it in 1972, it was $7.50 then and labor changed it. so it's pretty obvious why i was pissed off buying, their greatest hits, forking out $6.99 wasn't cheap. even so, my format had changed to tapes for some reason, so the eagles and ian hunter would have been about the last records i bought, excepting for the occasional second hand thing. so, i was working, cashed up pay day, new clothes and new music. i probably just bought the latest which i knew, it's hard to remember now, but i can sort of remember, buying 3 tapes one thursday night, one being hotel california. i think one of the reasons i switched to tapes was they ? sounded better no scratches or you could take them places in your pocket or some reason. tapes were in, records were out. that would change of course.

27july2015
been thinking about that time, it might not have much to do with fm, maybe there's some relevance to something. before i get to hotel california. i was thinking about that fitters labourers job, i got in the steelworks. at first, it was in the machine shop, just sweeping the floor and emptying metal shavings from the apprentices machines. i got talking to them about shit, like music and that. they were mainly 3rd and 4th year, i would have been 2nd year if i never lost mine. they were into some pretty rank things, one guy was going on about nazareth  loud'n'proud album. i thought this must be a good record if he's going on about it. i thought it was shit, that type of rock never did much for me , that some old stodgy dribble, dinosaur rock. i told the cunt i bought that shit too, he reckoned it was great, pull the chain. another guy on a lathe, a goatee bearded hippy type, probably a fourth year, reckoned he heard a great album on double jay radio, that was then on am. where i lived was like slum gully as far as reception was concerned pretty bad. the old stereo gram had gone by then, i just had the small 3 in 1. them days i was out mainly anyways, not at home listening to the radio. a little bit of radio in the mornings from the clock radio , them very first ones where the numbers turned around, poor reception from sydney, 2sm was just okay on a good day, i didn't bother with the local stations , 2 then, abc and commercial station. getting back to this lathe dude. the album he was on about was j.geils band - full house. i can still visualize him telling me all about it, and what good music they played, yeah the one that got away, yesterday . i bought that also.  i thought it was a bit stodgy also, but i played that a few times. i liked a long thing on it with the magic dick bloke on the harmonica, at that time he was the best player, amazing. that was around the last of me buying records. i can't remember songs. i checked out nazareth on the wiki, they give it four stars, there must be something wrong with me, i noticed the ballad of hollis brown, maybe or probably the dylan one, i can't remember it. that album got played 4 times i think.

28july2015
diverting can be beneficial when looking for a future direction. a thing i did on stoned  occasions, was  to tune the fm tv station on the radio , whilst the telly was on . this effect gave a few seconds delay between the two, something i only ever got once from a pink floyd record.

5august2015
it's been awhile since i wrote here, it's hard to get into the flow, mainly due to other things. you've probably figured out that this will end with some eagles thing. among the things that have happened since i last blogged here, was this bloke, who's in one of the ironworkers photos ,has past away. he lived in these block of flats called hotel california, i'll take a photo of them flats, maybe a goggle map. i forgot what street. other than that , i 'll try and get into this and start a new, soon.

6august2015

california  flats wollongong

these flats were probably built in the 60s, today are dwarfed by development. i don't know too much about them, i haven't been round that area for some time now. as for the guy that died there, i don't know too much there either , although i have known him since the eighties. i didn't know he lived there until much later. he wasn't well from hep c for along time, as much as i know is he was found dead. r.i.p.  

12august2015
so it's welcome to the hotel california time. so i bought the tape , as for now , i don't no any songs expecting hotel california, and life in the fast lane. i haven't played or heard that album , probably since 1979. i think i liked, the last resort, but i can't remember it. the hype got me again with, the long run, this time on vinyl, and pretty much it for me with the eagles and fm.